JOPLIN, Mo., - Arkansas Tech women's cross country continued its season Saturday by finishing 27th out of 37 teams at the Missouri Southern Stampede held at Fred G. Hughes Stadium.

Saturday's meet was held on the same course this year's NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championship Meet on Nov. 17 will be conducted on.

"It was the best we've run in a long time as a team," Tech head coach Tom Aspel said. "We haven't had three runners under 20 minutes in a race in several years."

Tech, who scored 685 points at the meet, finished 66 points behind 26th place Emporia State and 138 points in front of 28th place Lindenwood [MO] University. The University of Tulsa won the 5,000-meter race with 46 points, while Missouri Southern ran second with 122 points and UC-San Diego finished third with 150 points.

Leading the way for Tech was freshman Lauren Karnitz. Karnitz ran a team-best time of 19:29 to finish in 95th place at the meet. In addition to Karnitz, junior Kayla Waldrup, one of the team's four returning runners from last season, ran a time of 19:49 to finish in 126th place.

Tulsa's Alex Becker took home the women's individual title as she ran the course in a time of 16:33, while Oral Roberts' Faithy Kamangila finished second after running a time of 17:16.

Other finishers for Tech behind Karnitz and Waldrup, sophomore Melissa Pollreis ran a time of 19:56 to finish in 134th place, while freshman Julia Huie ran the 5,000-meter course in a time of 20:25 to finish in 169th place and junior Brianna Greene finished in 206th place after running a time of 21:02. Freshman Carrie Sowers ran a time of 21:04 to finish in 207th place and freshman Amber Tury completed the Tech contingent as she ran a time of 22:28 to finish in 248th place.

The Golden Suns will return to action Saturday, when they compete at the Orange Crush Invitational hosted by Hendrix College in Conway.